Being the utter lunatic I am, I went out in 1 degree weather to get pictures of Ellwood House while the snow was pristine and still falling. And that's one degree before wind chill, which there was plenty of.

Ellwood House is a Victorian-era mansion erected by one of the major founding families of DeKalb, the Ellwoods. The first Ellwood was one of the famed barbed wire barons.

It was SO cold that my small camera DIED after a few shots. It looks like the batteries were going, and the cold just killed them the rest of the way. I had to break out my big camera, and it began to have problems focusing and keeping up after a bit. While I was switching cameras, the lights apparently came on behind me. I had no idea until I saw the pictures later. I could hardly see, with the wind and the cold and everything freezing over. My mustache was solid by the time I got inside the gift store and visitor center in back to thaw out.

I took several pictures of the house itself, and many more with myself in them. In these pictures I am wearing my Guitars and Gears Army Coat ( [link] ), Navy Blue Vest with Bronzewood Buttons ( [link] ), Purple-Bronze Goggles with amber lenses ( [link] ), Steampunk Stetson with Blue Leather and Copper Hatband ( [link] ), and, visible in a few shots, my Steampunk Pocket Compass ( [link] ) and silver bracelet watch.